Santa Came Early at the Heiner Home

On December 19th we celebrated Christmas due to a last minute decision (and good ticket prices) to go to Utah/Idaho for Christmas.

My two happy little sweeties

Don't ask me why Hailey wanted a band aid on her face but she is happily sporting it in every Christmas picture.

Before we left to Utah/Idaho we let the girls go out for a spin. Hailey is still learning how to drive it. She went around in circles the whole time, loving every second of it.

Thank you Grandpa and Grandma Heiner!!

We flew into Salt Lake and stayed with Grandpa and Grandma Heiner for a few days before we headed to Rexburg, ID for Christmas day. Hailey lived in the playhouse when she wasn't snuggling with Grandma and Grandpa Heiner of course.

We were lucky enough to make it to the Radford family Christmas party this year. We had so much fun! It was so good to see everyone.

Ryan, Melanie, Lisa (sporting her darling new do...she cut off like 9 inches)

Kate hanging out with Grandpa

Grandma, Mom, Mike and Nancy (minus Dave, Liz broke her leg snowmobiling)

Cute little Taizee (spelling?)

Grandpa and Grandma Sparks

All I can say is, what a special experience. Thanks to Mom, we were taken on a personal tour inside the Rexburg LDS temple before the open house and the dedication.

I have to tell a special little memory while we were inside the temple. My mother posed for this picture painted by Del Parson. She is Mary, the one kneeling. Well there are several of these paintings hanging inside the temple. Hailey saw one of them and said, "Nana is talking to Jesus!"

Nana gave in and let Hailey open a couple of presents early! Lets just say the girls were spoiled this year in the Rigby home.

"Twas the Night before Christmas"

Sipping Santa's Milk

Thank you Nana and Grandpa Rigby for all the fun presents. Hailey loves her little princess castle!

Kate love the boots Nana gave Hailey.

We headed back to Utah after a wonderful time at the Rigby home. We watched Logan play basketball against University of Utah. Hailey loves seeing Logan's basketball games. She is always worried about making sure she has her ticket to get into the game! Thank you Grandpa Rigby for driving us! Thank you Greer family for letting us stay at your home!

Fun at the Smith Christmas party in Morgan, UT.

Hailey loved Mark!

We made a quick visit to the Dalby home. It was so much fun to see their new house and visit with our old friends.


Hailey and Ella were born just a couple days apart!

Jana and I go way back. Back to those days in Minnesota when our husbands were out selling and we were sick to our stomachs (pregnant). Thank you Jana for being such a sweet friend.


Kate and Arlene.


Addie, Jane and Hailey

This picture will forever remind me of Brig's little high pitched voice singing the chipmunk song. "Christmas, Christmas time is here, time for love and time for cheer, we've been good but we can't last, hurry Christmas hurry fast."

Miya and Hailey bonded near the end of the trip

Hailey's home while at the Heiner house

Jess and Gio blessed beautiful little Alessandra while we were there. We are so glad we decided to fly home!


Hailey can't get enough of little Alessandra

A Jolly Get Together

I know this post is super late, but I have to include all of my Christmas pictures after I found out about BLURP. It is basically a website that allows you to download your blog posts at the click of a button, make any necessary changes, and when you are ready BLURP prints out your blog posts into a hard bound book!!! (SWEET!!!) I am more than ecstatic seeing as how I am not a great scrapbooker, and I have spent a large amount of my time blogging. I guess posting my pictures individually instead of in a slideshow, although time consuming, paid off! (Now when you see a nauseating amount of pictures, you will know my two-fold mission: to update family and friends and scrapbook the cheater way.) For those of you interested, the website is:

http://www.blurb.com/create/book/blogbook.

On to my post...Before Christmas we had a fun little gift exchange with the Mendenhall Family. As always we had a blast

Once There Was a Snowman

"I can't put my arms down" (For all of you who have seen the classic Christmas Story movie you will get this joke.)


Merry Christmas!!

Late Night Slumber Party

The other night John, Hailey and I (Kate fast asleep) had a late night slumber party. We popped popcorn, watched a Christmas movie and ate cookies. Hailey chose this shirt to sleep in, purchased by Grandpa Rigby (Thank you!!!).

SUPERSTAR!!!!!

Hailey was obviously ecstatic that she got to stay up late!

Every time John would relax his hand Hailey would grab it and hold it again.

Think These Are Cute??...

Listen to what happens when Kate walks in them!

Deb, we talked about how Kate's Christmas present may not fit her so I got curious and anxious and opened them early! Sorry! Kate absolutely loves them! She wants to put them on just to hear her little feet squeak!

Broken Hangers

I know this is a funny post but I had to write it down so I wouldn't forget. I find broken hangers all over the place and why???...because Hailey pulls so hard on her princess or church dress that she breaks the hangers. I'm not so worried about the hangers as I am her dresses. I have resorted to laying them nicely on the floor.

TAG...

Melanie…

…has a secret addiction to McDonald’s Big Mac hamburgers… which is pretty weird considering I absolutely detested the place before I got pregnant. I mean, I would go there occasionally with friends and order a chicken sandwich, but never a hamburger. I was never a huge fan of red meat growing up and then the second I got pregnant I couldn’t get enough of it. Instead I couldn’t eat chicken. I now love all food, but I sure wish I could kick the McDonalds habit (I am slowly realizing how sick I feel after I eat it!)

Melanie…

…unintentionally memorizes lines from movies after sometimes only watching them once. I will come out of a movie with John and recite my favorite parts to him only to have him ask, “How many times have you watched it?” My most recent favorite memorized movie lines come from Elf.
Papa Elf: Silly as it sounds, A lot of people down south don’t believe in Santa Claus.
Buddy: What??! Who do they think puts all their toys under the tree?
PA: Well, there’s a rumor floating around that the parents do it.
Buddy: That’s ridiculous!
Buddy: What about Santa’s cookies? I suppose parents eat them too?
PA: Yeah, I know, We have an energy crisis on our hands, look at how low the Claus ometer is.
Buddy: That’s shocking!


Melanie…

…has a secret love/hate relationship with Carrie Underwood. Don’t get me wrong, I love her music probably more than anything else right now. I secretly hate that she is so talented and gets to sing country music as her life’s profession. I would never replace my role as a mother, but if I were asked what I would do if I wanted a profession on the side, it would be to sing country music. It doesn’t help my relationship with Carrie that any time we see her on t.v. I ask John, “Do you think she is pretty?” John says, “No, you are pretty, and then jokingly responds, but she isn’t ugly.”

Melanie…

…has always loved chocolate covered cinnamon bears. My favorite places to get them are at the BYU bookstore in Utah and Porter’s in Idaho. Two places very far from here! For some reason I have a hard time finding them here!


Melanie…

…broke her finger playing powder puff football. Silly as it sounds, I had to have surgery to place pins in my finger to make sure it healed straight. Although I love watching football (GO COLTS), I will leave the actual playing of the sport to professionals.

Melanie…

…can’t get enough of her nightly bath. Believe it or not I take a bath every night, even if it is 2:00 in the morning. People still tease me that I take baths everyday, but I have come to the realization that they give me much needed time to myself. My two requirements while in the bath:
Any book
The water has to be REALLY HOT!

I TAG...
Anyone who wants to do this!